War Of The Worlds – The Extinctive Cut

Review by blueyoda — August 4, 2009 @ 4:59 am

*MILD SPOILERS AHEAD*

The great thing about this fanedit is that the movie feels much, much more like an old Spielberg movie. That great sense of timing, that great eye for detail and that sense of rhythm that the once great director has now mostly lost.

This fanedit gave me that feeling of awe I had as a kid when I watched Jaws, Duel or Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ray is no longer a superhero but an average Joe trying to cope with extraordinary events and sometimes failing miserably. The removal of Tim Robbins has much more impact than I originally thought it would; the cellar scene is now much more suspensful and like I pointed out above, now feels like a good old Spielberg movie. The whole thing not only flows much better but also makes a lot more sense both on an emotional level and on a “realistic” level which is much needed in a movie about aliens from outer space destroying the human race.

If I had to nitpick, I’d say even more scenes could have been removed; Ray’s character “dramatically” throwing a peanut butter toast at the window should have been cut; it’s a scene right out of an Austin Powers movie and absolutely doesn’t work. And what I like to call the zombie attack on Ray’s car should have been cut or trimmed as well. It’s simply ridiculous. A couple of other moments had me cringe but the overall impact of the changes that were made drowned out the gripes I had and I was quickly drawn back into the movie.

The movie comes with two endings thru seemless branching; the extinctive cut and the purist cut. The former is a brand new ending for the movie created from scratch but unfortunately did not work at all for me. The change in narrative style is too drastic and clashes with the rest of the movie. I can see what the editor tried to create but it simply fails at its mission as it was impossible to pull off. Only a close approximation could be created, and this is what we got. The purist ending works much, much better; it’s the original ending re-edited to make sense in the context of this fanedit and again in observance of early Spielberg brilliance. This is the ending you should watch, in this reviewer’s eyes.

The DVD is a typical CBB release, which means its presentation is flawless. Great menus, a choice of subtitles and extras (which include a fascinating comparison of the shack scene) all make watching the whole thing an experience rather than just watching a two hour movie.

8/10

Review by kboy930 — August 4, 2009 @ 11:15 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by spelledaren — August 4, 2009 @ 1:51 pm

Thanks, great work on this one.

Not too fond of every change of scene, but then, how often does that happen? Really liked most that was done.
The movie, for some reason, doesn’t feel really -complete- to me, as if something’s a bit off. Wonder why.

8/10 for me, improving upon the original.

Added ratings for the categories. Entertainment down to 7.

Review by TMBTM — August 7, 2009 @ 10:52 pm

Great edit! I saw The Extinctive Cut .AVI tonight (a rainy and Stormy night, pefect for that movie!) and I found it very good.

The rhythm was a non-stop, the tension was high. You know, I always liked the original movie, even if I sometimes told myself “This scene was not needed. The pacing here is off, etc…” But actualy watching the movie with those changes really was a treat to me!

The only thing that taken me off was some shots of the new ending from a very well known movie… Maybe the purist cut should be more for me.

So: -1 because of some few shots, +9 because it turned a movie that like into a movie that I love!

Review by Metrostar — August 8, 2009 @ 4:50 pm

Watched this a few days ago with the wife and really enjoyed it. The shack scenes were brilliant and a vast improvement on the original. The new ending took me right out of the movie for a moment, but the storytelling and feel of this new ending was excellent and left me really thinking about it in that way.

Right after we watched the new ending, we watched the ‘purist’ ending and although this looked better in terms of editing, it left me feeling like, ‘well, was that it?’ Just like it did when I first saw the theatrical release. So for me, in terms of storytelling, it’s the new ending that gets my vote.